{"id":337,"date":"2009-10-01T15:27:13","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T15:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=337"},"modified":"2009-10-01T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T15:27:13","slug":"there_goes_my_retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2009\/10\/there_goes_my_retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"There goes my retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

No sooner do I tell the world<\/a> (and by “the world” I mean “you three readers, hi there – xoxo”) about my millions-making idea for Wii Conductor does my client Eric<\/a> send me this from today’s Boston Globe<\/i>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

When Paul Henry Smith and the Fauxharmonic
\nOrchestra set up to perform, the sounds made are like no other symphony
\norchestra. There is no chorus of string instruments tuning, no scooting
\nof chairs, no fluttering of the pages of musical scores. Rather there
\nare just two imperceptible clicks as Smith turns on two computers – a
\nMacPro for the woodwinds and an IMac for everything else.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But the instrumental sounds and full 100-voice choir that Smith then coaxes from the machines, using a Nintendo<\/org>
\nWii controller as his conductor’s baton<\/b>, sound surprisingly acoustic,
\nlive, and real. Smith is quick to point out that the effect does not
\nyet equal the experience of, say, a night at Symphony Hall, but the
\nadvancing technology of digital orchestras is rapidly getting closer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The full story is here<\/a>, and here’s how it works:<\/p>\n

\n

There are four components. First, there are the sound libraries. They
\nare 500 to 600 gigabytes of data on a disc. Each note, on each
\ninstrument, each possible way a musician can play it, is recorded as a
\nseparate file. So, say a violin playing a C would be recorded soft,
\nloud, mezzo-piano, pizzicato, using the bow, loud sharp attack then
\nfading away. There might be hundreds of recordings of that violin
\nplaying C. . . Next, there is software that manages access to that
\ndata. . . The third component is like the bow for a violin, it’s
\nsomething you wield to make the sound happen. For me, that’s the
\nNintendo wireless controller and I also stand on a Wii balance board.
\nThe board senses where and how hard I’m leaning. If I wave my arms
\nfaster or slower, that changes the speed, and if I lean toward the
\nphantom areas where the musicians would be in a real orchestra, those
\ninstruments become louder. I preprogram the notes to be played into the
\ncomputer. . . The fourth part is having really good speakers, and
\nthat’s very important. . . Bang & Olufsen has provided me with
\nBeolab 5 speakers. The technology in them was developed by a local guy,
\nDavid Moulton, who lives in Groton. The essence of the technology is
\nthat it spreads the sound evenly in a space, so you can create the
\nillusion that the sound is originating across the stage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My game was going to come with Bang & Olufsen speakers, too, Paul Henry Smith<\/i>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No sooner do I tell the world (and by “the world” I mean “you three readers, hi there – xoxo”) about my millions-making idea for Wii Conductor does my client Eric send me this from today’s Boston Globe: When Paul Henry Smith and the Fauxharmonic Orchestra set up to perform, the sounds made are like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}